Opera is the center-point for this performance by Ramona Nagabczyńska. In order to tell us about female voices, she reaches for opera – a performative arts form which has remained almost completely unchanged for centuries.

We tend to associate voices with the symbolic sphere; with meanings assigned to sounds. We forget that it is the manifestation of complex physical attributes. The voices which evade the symbolic order are moved beyond conventions: which does not mean that they do not exist – only that we have lost the ability to hear them. Traditional female song practices have found their dominant equivalent in the virtuoso operatic arias created by male opera composers. This is where the original voice ecstasy mixes with the refined propaganda of a harmful order.

The ancient Greek practice of aischyrology, based on the use of obscene language, emerged from feminine rituals. No contemporary equivalent of this practice exists – quite the opposite: vulgarisms and references to the abject side of the body are disturbing when they come from the mouths of women.

The political aspect of the human voice is defined not only by the meanings of the words which are uttered, but in equal terms by marking the physical presence of specific bodies.

Ramona Nagabczyńska (Warsaw) is a performer and choreographer born in Toronto, Canada. trained in dance at the Warsaw State Ballet School, the Hochschule fur Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt and The Place in London after which she obtained a master’s degree in Cultural Studies at the University of Warsaw. Her work often defies the boundaries of artistic disciplines, which is why she tends to be referred to as visual artist or theatre director. New (Dis)Order, RE//accumulation, The Way Things Dinge, pURe, Body Parts, Silenzio!, Le Jeu de Massacre, Bliss and Performers Anonymous are amongst her most important performances.

She has been an Aerowaves Top 20 artist twice and an apap Performing Europe artist between 2015 and 2019. As the first choreographer in history, she received an award for Best Director for Silenzio! at the Divine Comedy Festival in 2021. She is co-founder of Centre in Motion in Warsaw, which is an artist-led space for choreography.